While I still believe that the mainstream media often has a rush to judgement about negative news about certain schools, I do have a problem believing that certain BOE members (who have been very responsive in the past), or Dr. Lathan ignored this group of parents. I noted in a previous post that at the September BOE meeting I only saw one parent from PHS come forward to speak to the BOE.
In an e-mail sent to local bloggers, Rev. Watson states the following:
We have repeatedly asked for Board Members to come meet with us to discuss our issues and no response. We have contacted Dr. Lathan as far back as May, and had no response. If The Chamber of Commerce or any other organization deemed important by the B.O.E. or Superintendent requested their presence, they would attend. We, as parents, are tired of groups/members of the public that have no children at PHS spreading false rumors and accusations against our children and school staff. We felt the closure of a high school was a mistake but we have to make the best out of the situation. Those in the public that are spreading rumors, we ask you to stop because it does nothing but harm all the students of PHS. There is much truth to the adage if you can’t say something positive, say nothing at all. You are there to represent all the students of District #150 and set an example. How do you think our students feel after hearing these unwarranted accusations? Remember, the Board voted to close Woodruff and now it is a Peoria High problem? It might behoove you in the future to have solutions before decisions are made.
We also are offended by the fact that nothing was done by the Administrative staff to prevent these stories from exacerbating on Channel 25 and in the Peoria Journal Star. Stories like this could likely be ran about every school in America, but the Board and Administration reacted to the stories by recommending staggering dismissal times, etc., in essence, blaming PHS. Again, more assumptions about our Peoria High students. We understand that there will happenings, but it is not exclusive to Peoria High. These incidents occur across every school, across every city, across the nation.
In summary, we feel we are receiving disparate treatment as issues are ongoing at the other schools, yet they do not receive the unwarranted attention that has been thrust upon the Peoria High School community. The Board of Education and the Superintendent have failed to address and plan regarding the issues mentioned above. We do not appreciate the inaccurate perception that is being portrayed to the general public about our school and we are extremely disappointed and frustrated with the lack of information and support that we have received. Randy Simmons and his staff are the best of the best and we expect to be treated as such, which provides for a domino effect to the education and fulfillment for the PHS students. Our children deserve no less.
We have asked for School Board involvement and been ignored. We have asked for District150 Administration involvement and been ignored. We will no longer be silent about the injustice being perpetrated against PHS and our children. Let all who read this know if you want your child to be taught by the best and cared for by the best then PHS is the right place for your child!
19 comments:
@ Anonymous who hearts Richwoods:
Before you get started - read this... DISCLAIMER
This is post is not a blog against Richwoods, it's PTO or any of it's parents. It is a post about the negative pubilicity that the local mainstream media continues to reap on schools south of War Memorial.
Emerge - I have been to PHS several times already this year. Rev Watson is off base on several fronts, but alas, he won't respond to any e-mail I've sent offering to meet and discuss. Mr. Romanus said he agrees with "everything" but he was wrong in his previous assertion that we were persuing a grant that would force us to remove Mr. Simmons. That was never the direction the Board gave admin. Given our challenges, I'm very pleased with how the school year is starting, for the most part. Guess those who said we wouldn't even be able to get PHS open in time are now looking for the next can to kick. Mr. Simmons also refutes the "lack of support" and said the letter was done without his input or consultation.
I will stop posting as anonymous. I have not posted since I defended our PTO head. I am the one that did not compare you to Pam Adams. I agree with your statements. From what I hear from my former coworkers who are now at PHS, things are going well there also. I think you sometimes overexaggerate the amount of press that we get compared to PHS. Leaving out sports, we do not get more positive press than other schools, IMO. I don't think Richwoods is doing poorly and I don't think that you want us to get undue negative press, just the negative press about PHS should not have happened either.
Thank you RHS teacher, I appreciate your opinion.
I, too, have a friend who teachers at PHS (probably more than one, not even counting the principal). I think PHS faculty, administration, students have done a remarkable job considering all that is on their plate.
The teachers, the administrators, the students cannot control how some students will behave. The behavior of students cannot be blamed on any District 150 employees (including central administration or board members).
It is how the behaviors are handled that determines the success or failure of the school. So far I believe Randy has done everything in his power to see to it that consequences are meted out fairly, quickly, and appropriately.
One word of encouragement: For all my "good" years at Manual, we (faculty and students) were always the whipping boy of the city and of District 150--we were always underestimated. Yet we had wonderful years. Actually, the negative press made us stronger and the students themselves made every effort to rise above Manual's undeserved reputation. Randy himself and his classmates were the victims of that bad rap--but it didn't hurt them or us; it made us stronger. PHS just isn't used to the light shining on them--Manual has always lived under that light. The worse thing that can happen to PHS is to hide the problems under a rug--they will not go away and will not get solved. The public needs to know what Randy and the teachers are up against--and then, when the problems are handled, they can get the praise they deserve.
What the district needs to be concerned about right now is--Who will take Randy's place when he retires?
I concur with Mr. Stowell, I was not contacted by this group or any individuals claiming to be affiliated with it, and they have not responded to my offers to meet and discuss with them.
I have also been driving through the PHS area at dismissal time, and my husband has been timing his commutes to and from work to match up with arrival (most days) and dismissal (some days) because he goes past PHS and through the neighborhood on his bike. The most excitement he's seen has been students shouting, "Hey, cool bike!" He's been a bike commuter contending with car and bus traffic with very little difficulty.
The issue of individuals maligning our students at public meetings during the public comment time is troubling, particularly when the accusations are false, but there is little that can be done about it; they certainly have the right to say what they wish, no matter how false.
Laura, I honestly don't understand why your husband's experience is the final word on how things are. Why don't teachers and parents have just as much credibility as he does? At any given moment at any school the "truth" is completely different from one minute to the next.
I remember when I first started calling attention to problems at Manual--while I was still at Manual. A board member came to visit Manual and came to my room after school to tell me that things on that day, at least, had gone very smoothly. I told him what had happened in my classroom--two hours earlier a male student had stripped to the waist and beat a girl's head against the wall numerous times. Both the board member's and my realities were truth. You just have to be at the right place at the right time--or the wrong place at the right time. Even my reality was different from one hour to the next.
Tell me which public speaker has spoken lies from the podium? And how would you know if they are lies? I am rather surprised to hear you make such generalizations and accusations. We would all be willing to write about 150 issues and problems in e-mails, etc., so that they could be handled quietly without public attention; however, I learned from experience that nobody pays any attention to such information. These accounts have to be told publicly and often before anyone is willing to do anything about them.
The board has now done its best to see to it that the public cannot hear any dissenting comments.
That said, I have no doubt that Randy and the PHS staff have done much to control dismissal time, especially after the earlier complaints. Honestly, I don't know why the focus is on PHS--and I don't really think it is. I haven't heard much from the podium about serious discipline problems at PHS. I believe there are hot spots in the district with much bigger problems.
Monday night you heard about major problems at Glen Oak, where 800+ students are crammed into a building designed for 600 or so. I understand that school has no security. Do you consider that report of problems to have been false? Too many kids at Glen Oak and too many kids at Lincoln and PHS--those are board created problems--and there will be problems.
Laura, I honestly don't understand why your husband's experience is the final word on how things are. Why don't teachers and parents have just as much credibility as he does? At any given moment at any school the "truth" is completely different from one minute to the next.
I remember when I first started calling attention to problems at Manual--while I was still at Manual. A board member came to visit Manual and came to my room after school to tell me that things on that day, at least, had gone very smoothly. I told him what had happened in my classroom--two hours earlier a male student had stripped to the waist and beat a girl's head against the wall numerous times. Both the board member's and my realities were truth. You just have to be at the right place at the right time--or the wrong place at the right time. Even my reality was different from one hour to the next.
Tell me which public speaker has spoken lies from the podium? And how would you know if they are lies? I am rather surprised to hear you make such generalizations and accusations. We would all be willing to write about 150 issues and problems in e-mails, etc., so that they could be handled quietly without public attention; however, I learned from experience that nobody pays any attention to such information. These accounts have to be told publicly and often before anyone is willing to do anything about them.
The board has now done its best to see to it that the public cannot hear any dissenting comments.
That said, I have no doubt that Randy and the PHS staff have done much to control dismissal time, especially after the earlier complaints. Honestly, I don't know why the focus is on PHS--and I don't really think it is. I haven't heard much from the podium about serious discipline problems at PHS. I believe there are hot spots in the district with much bigger problems.
Monday night you heard about major problems at Glen Oak, where 800+ students are crammed into a building designed for 600 or so. I understand that school has no security. Do you consider that report of problems to have been false? Too many kids at Glen Oak and too many kids at Lincoln and PHS--those are board created problems--and there will be problems.
"I honestly don't understand why your husband's experience is the final word on how things are. Why don't teachers and parents have just as much credibility as he does?"
It's not, and teachers and parents do; I merely wanted to explain ways in which I have personally been attempting to monitor the situation, and my husband has been helping me in that. Of course situations change moment to moment, but I've made an effort to be out there and see what's going on.
I've heard people at the podium compare our students to wild animals. One guy was at the podium last year saying we'd had no public meetings where we discussed plumbing, when the THREE PRIOR PUBLIC MEETINGS had discussed plumbing. There's simply all manner of things that are false -- you've heard several corrected by Dr. Lathan since she started the Superintendent's Response thing -- and now and then there are some things people say that are just horrible and I'm shocked that someone would say something like that about children. Anyone's children.
Sharon, you know that I am diligent about following up on complaints. On several occasions I have gone to investigate a particular complaint and been unable to see any evidence of it. I'm not sure what to do then when I'm told "students are doing X every day" or "Room Y is being used for Z" or "Event W is happening on a daily basis and that shouldn't occur" and when I go, unannounced, to see for myself, none of those things are occurring. I get told to take off my rose-colored glasses, but when I only hear things second-hand, individuals involved refuse to speak to me directly, and I can't find any evidence of the problem myself, I'm not really sure what to do other than let it go. I try my very hardest to chase down things that you and others report at the podium, but when there are no first-hand witnesses who will speak to me and I can't turn up any corroborating information through my investigations, there's not a whole lot I can do.
You also know that I have consistently supported the return of live broadcasting of our entire meetings.
Laura, I do know and appreciate all you do above and beyond. I think you do need to consider that some of the complaints, especially from teachers, have validity (whether or not you witness the events yourself). It's very easy to say something doesn't happen because you didn't see it happen. Again, when I was a teacher, we complained and complained in-house--ignored by the superintendent, our principal, and board members. Finally, one time in the 1990s Jeff and I decided to go to the press. Elaine Hopkins wrote the story; it was on page one. Then board members started to listen. And there were some positive results. I would like to be proven wrong, but so far making information public is the best way to get the attention of the powers that be. Sometimes it even takes a lawsuit.
I don't believe any teachers who come to the podium have exaggerated--they are very careful to present information they know to be true. The public, I believe, is smart enough to figure out which speakers are exaggerating and/or are inappropriate. I know that you do have the right attitude about the right to speak, etc.
In the interest of accuracy and to make up for my loss of memory, the year when we went to the PJS was probably in 2002-2003. I believe our complaints about attendance may have sparked the board to revise its policy on unexcused absences and to rewrite the policy of 2005--which, also, ironically means that is when the tardy policy was probably eliminated.
"I think you do need to consider that some of the complaints, especially from teachers, have validity (whether or not you witness the events yourself). It's very easy to say something doesn't happen because you didn't see it happen."
That was absolutely not what I said -- I said when I can't get a FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT and I can't find any evidence and I can't manage to witness it myself. What I have trouble with is second- and third-hand accounts of something happening when NOBODY with first-hand knowledge of the situation is willing to come forward and I can't find any other evidence.
Most of the time teachers are speaking about their first-hand knowledge of situations in their schools.
It is the third-hand claims that I am unable to find any evidence for that I have a problem with.
Sharon:
The rumors about Peoria High would have us believe that ravening hordes of students are regularly scouring the neighborhood, fighting in the streets and mobbing front yards. There have been stories of hundreds of kids congregating in yards, blocking residents from their homes, and slowing traffic to a crawl.
I bike through that neighborhood twice a day on weekdays - so at least 10 times a week. On a bicycle, I have the opportunity to notice more than a motorist would, and to interact with the local community (among the myriad of other benefits that bike commuting affords me). Sure, I see kids heading to or leaving school, but their numbers are far less than legion. At most, I see handfuls of kids, walking on the sidewalks, who appear to be traveling between the school and a local home. The worst traffic problem I have encountered is catching a city bus route wrong, and having to inhale excessive fumes from one of our failing fleet of city buses all the way downtown. And I did see a car run a red light the other day, but it was still dark out and way before school opened. Admittedly, I am not there every hour of the day, but I am there daily, and I have yet to witness anything to substantiate the horror stories.
Have you witnessed any of the reported problems yourself, or are you relying on second-hand accounts? If so, the more salient question is not whether you find my testimony credible, but why you find the rumors credible. Frankly, what I have heard so far sounds like gross exaggeration. The events at issue are events that are supposedly occurring in public spaces, visible to many, not behind closed doors inside the school with few witnesses. I appreciate residents' protective feelings towards their properties, and feelings of annoyance at any form of disruption. I appreciate the newspaper's need to sell papers. However, mobs large enough and long lasting enough to stop traffic for 15 minutes would be more widely noticed, and the front yards there are not big enough to hold two or three hundred students, unless they were standing on each others' shoulders. You are going to get some time specific increases in traffic in that neighborhood, but my understanding is that the school has been there for a while, so that should hardly be an alarming surprise to anyone.
I am not suggesting that I can disprove the occurrence of any specific problems since school opened back up. I am simply saying that in my daily commute I have not seen any evidence of the wild events we have heard stories of. And as a bike commuter, if I experienced anything in that neighborhood that threatened my comfort or safety, I would be more than happy to relate it!
Garth-
Garth Madison is my husband, whom I mentioned above.
Laura (and Garth),
I totally believe your accounts of what you have seen/experienced. Laura, I appreciate your service on the BoE and your openness and lack of snarkiness on the blogs.
Let me just add 2 things to the discussion:
1) At Peoria High over the years, there have been times that I learned about a fight/incident/altercation that occurred before/during/after school while I was there that I knew nothing about when it occurred because I was not in the right place/right time. On the other hand, I know when I have witnessed/intervened in incidents that others in the building knew nothing about. So...
2) Staff at Peoria High sometimes feel like Homeland Security (as I am sure staff do at other challenged schools!) We establish relationships with students and they tell us things. A fictitious but fact-based example: "Anne and Sally are going to fight today at C lunch (or at the Cub Food parking lot)." Anne and Sally both just got back from suspension for almost-fighting with each other. We notify the deans and security of what we have been told and the fight does not happen at lunch. Did we prevent it? Was it never going to happen? We never know for sure.
No one knows how many of these incidents have been prevented by the cooperation of students/staff/admin/security. If these relationships did not exist...
Just some food for thought.
hot, I absolutely agree with both your points. While I certainly don't "hope" to ever be in the right place at the right time to witness a problem occurring, I do go out, especially when hearing reports of problems, and try to see what there is to see. And I do rely on the reports we get from parents, teachers, and students.
However, I also get calls like (here's another fictitious example), "I heard from a very reliable source that a teacher is force-feeding frogs legs to students every day!" "OMG, that's terrible, who is the teacher?" "I don't want to get anyone in trouble, it just needs to stop." "... okay, what school?" "Oh, I don't want to get anyone in trouble." "Um ... can you have someone who witnessed it call me? I'll keep names confidential." "No, they don't want to make any trouble." Well, other than a district-wide memo that force-feeding is bad, which one hopes everyone already knows, there's not a lot to be done with that, and it's madly frustrating.
Laura,
I totally get your point! I would be frustrated, too. I was not implying any lack of confidence in you. I know that a ton of rumors whirl around D150. I hear most of them. Some of them are the result, IMHO, of years of non-communication and mis-communication from Wisconsin and (sorry but true) from the BoE. People don't have trust. I hope Dr. Lathan can change that perception.
I appreciate your determination to follow up on what you are told without denigrating the "tellers."
Even when the rumors are true, I assume you understand that people who are current D150 employees are extremely leery of "going public." And this year, with "the chain of command" being emphasized, there is even less willingness.
Hot in the City: I agree. I was a teacher at Woodruff last year and a staff member was arrested in the school for an incident unrelated to school. The staff person was handcuffed and taken out of the school by Peoria Police. I heard about it weeks later. Laura, just because your husband doesn't "see" it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. We also have a couple of board members with their heads stuck in the proverbial sand.
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